Most memorable solo bird

[Happy]

Thanks for the stories fellows, here's mine.
After a sleepless night I finally got up at 3 am for my first Wv turkey hunt of the year. The hunting club is a good 45 min drive and I had a ways to go I. The woods so I was on the road by 3:15. Arriving at my parking spot I quickly unloaded the four wheeler and set off. I had about a mile to cover before I parked the bike and continued on foot.
Arriving at my normal parking spot I quickly shut of the bike and started off to one of my favorite spots off to the side of a large field that was the only remains of all the strip mining that took place many years ago. My grandad worked there for many years and retired once they closed up shop. I always loved hunting the same hills and hollers that he did back when he was younger although he was a deer hunter first and foremost.
After walking about a half mile I slowed down. I know where the turkeys usually liked to roost and I wanted to sneak in pretty close before daylight and be ready  when the first hints of daylight showed over the eastern horizon. I quietly snuck in and leaned my back against the familiar old log and got comfortable knowing daylight was a good half hour away.
As I sat there in the dark I remembered all the previous birds I had taken from this very spot. It was a spot that I reserved for my first hunt every year and I was running a heck of a streak. Five Longbeards in five first day hunts for me up to that point. I only hunted that spot the first day and then would leave it alone the rest of the year and pursue my second bird elsewhere. We have a huge hunting club so there are plenty of options. While I was sitting there I noticed an unusual silence in the woods and then the flashes of lightning caught my attention. The dark clouds coming from the west were clearly contrasted against the normal night sky. Lightning was flickering almost constantly behind the dark clouds and occasionally a low rumble of thunder could be heard. The storm was approaching fast so I took my shotguns and laid it on the ground beside me. Wouldn't have done much good if lightning had struck but at least I felt a little better.
As the storm clouds passed overhead I was shocked that not a drop of rain fell. In probably fifteen minutes it was all over and and the woods resumed their normal night time noises. Sitting their with my shotgun back in my lap I noticed the sky beginning to slowly brighten and my anticipation rose because I knew it was almost gobbling time.
When he first sounded off I was shocked, it was not near the normal roosting spot but a good 3 or 4 hundred yard further off to the northeast. I sat and listened thinking that surely another bird would fire up in the normal location but the only other bird I heard was a couple hundred yards east of the first bird. Full daylight was approaching fast so I got up and started my sneak closer to the first Tom who was bellowing his lungs out and the other tom was doing his best to keep pace. I knew that a wasn't going to get very tight to him since there wasn't any foliage out yet and he would be on the ground before I was set up anyways so I didn't rush, preferring to go undetected till I was ready to open the party.
Sneaking into about 150 yards of him a quickly plopped against a tree and checked my setup. The ground was perfectly flat and the only thing I had going for me was a huge fallen tree about 40 yards out. The tom had gone silent so I figured he was on the ground and maybe already had a hen or three but as soon as I gave a flydown cackle he hammered a double gobble back that put my heart in overdrive! I got the gun up and waited a minute or two before giving a few soft yelps and the response was immediate. He was coming hard! Not a minute later I spot him coming through the trees behind the log. I noticed the long heavy beard swaying as he approached slowly shifted my gun to cover the end of the log so I was on him as soon as he came around it. He disappeared as he got behind the log but I wasn't worried, he was dead, he just didn't know it yet. I kept the gun trained on that spot and waited and waited some more. Finally after what seemed like 15 minutes I raised my head off the stock and slowly looked around. Nothing. Giving a few cuts on the diaphram I was shocked when he gobbled a good 150 yards out and slightly to my left. How that sucker had snuck out of there without me seeing him is something I still don't understand to this day. But he did it and after getting a few more gobbles it was obvious he was  interested he wasn't coming back. Getting up I quickly circled to my right. Once I thought I was about even with him I cut on the mouth call again. He answered but he was on the move also.  I tried working him but he would only stand in one spot and gobble. I knew my only chance was to get in front of him and of I went. I circled extra wide to cover the noise I was making moving so fast and got ahead of him circling clear out as far as I dared and quickly setting up with my back to another field that had a few rows of Russian olives growing along the edge. I gave a few calls and boom , there he was 150 yards out,dead ahead. Sitting there, gun at the ready on my knees I waited and waited. Finally growing impatient I called again and that $!#&*# bird hadn't budged. I tried a few more series of calls all with the same result except that the second tom I heard that morning decided to join in. I went quiet thinking surely one of them would break and that's when tell storm hit.
It was one of those storms that just hits at a moments notice. The sky was still bright but it was raining so hard that the water was running down my legs underneath my pants. Every time the thunder cracked the Tom's would gobble and the storm just egged them on. I stayed tight, gun up waiting. The storm passed quickly and it was over ten minutes after it started. The sunlight was blinding with all the droplets of water on the tree branches reflecting brilliantly. It was beautiful. The only thing missing was my gobbling turkeys. I wasn't going to call again so I just waited. After about twenty minutes of sitting there soaking wet I said the heck with it. Slowly getting up I decided that it was time to try and find something that would play a little nicer. I was only 100 yards from my four wheeler so I thought I would walk over to another field about a quarter mile away and see if maybe a bird was out there because of the rain. I didn't make it 50 yards before I flushed the second tom.(there's a lesson to be learned there). Figuring I had pretty well ruined things I headed off after another bird. I snuck over over and checked the other field out. Nothing. Called a few times and all I got was silence. I headed back and once I got to tell bike I figured what the heck and went back to the last spot I had worked those toms. Getting back to the same tree I sat down and gave a few yelps and was shocked when he hammered behind me! That sucker was out on the field edge I had my back to earlier. (Lesson reiterated ). Quickly swinging around the tree I barely got the gun on my knee when I heard the drumming. His fan was beautiful coming through the olive trees and and I just let him come he hit the woods still in full strut and at twenty yards I clucked on the mouth call. The head came up and it was over. He was a good bird, 10.5" beard and 1 and 3/8" spurs. I never weighed him but he was light. I would guess around 16 pounds. It was a memorable hunt and I got him even tho I shouldn't have. Never gonna forget him either.

Sent from my SM-G800R4 using Tapatalk

[Happy]

And guesswho, please don't keep us in suspense too long! I hope it involves that steer a deer fencing that Tom Miranda has been doing Commercials for.

Sent from my SM-G800R4 using Tapatalk

[tomstopper]

Beside my first, I would have to say the most memorable would be a tie between two birds last year but both due to different reasons.
#1) I got to a pipeline earl in the morning and just sat there drinking my coffee waiting for the morning to start to wake up. After about 30 mins, I quietly got out of the truck and got my gear on and just stood there and listened. After about ten minutes of just standing there I started to reach for my owl tube and before I could pull it out, a gobbler just started cutting loose. That bird never shut up and I didn't use a location call once. I instead, snuck up around to the left and got onto another pipe line and made my way to him in the darkness (because he wouldn't shut up, it was easy to keep tabs on him). When I got to within about 75 yards, I found a spot against a tree and was focused on the bend towards his location on the pipe line. I made a couple soft calls and then some scratching in the leaves and I swear that I can still hear him hitting the ground with a huge thud. That bird was so fired up that he came around that bend in just seconds and at about 5:45 am, he was dead on the ground. Barely enough light but enough to see he was a mature bird and with all that gobbling, it ranks as one of my coolest hunts.
#2) I was in a blind at the end of a field with a pond at the top of it (aprox 100 yards away from me) and above that was a steep hill of oaks. I had seen a mature bird in that area just before dark the previous night so I felt confident that he could have been roosted close by. I set up a strutting decoy and a feeding hen at 25 yards away so that if he made his way to them and decided to hang up, hopefully it would be no greater than 40 yards away (took me many years to learn not to put my decoys out at 35-40 yards away because I had to many come in and get hung up just outside of gun range). The trick is that I placed the decoys so that they both were facing me and I had some braided fishing line ran from the blind and to the strutters tail fan (made a small hole through the base of the neck and then put the string through it and attached it to the top center of the fan which was about 3/4 erect). I called periodically all morning with no luck. At about 8am I was beginning to pick up my things in the blind when I heard a gobble from the oaks on the hill side. I called back and was cut off by gobbling. I called once more and then just got ready. About 15 min later he made himself visible and began walking around the ponds edge so I called again. Again he gobbled but didn't want to come any closer than 100 yards. I slowly pulled on the string and the tail fan on the decoy came to full strutting position and everything changed. The gobbler immediately stopped strutting, tucked his wings and made a direct run to the decoys. It happened so quickly that I was scrambling to get my gun up and on him. When he got to within about 5 feet from my decoys he broke into a full strut and then kicked the crap out of my decoy in a split second. As soon as he knocked it over and landed back on his feet, I dropped the hammer and had another beautiful mature gobbler on the ground. I haven't used that trick or even that decoy since but maybe someday I will again. I can still see him running, then strutting just as quick as it happened then and I still get that rush. I just absolutely love hunting these birds and always will.

[Mike Honcho]

Like others have said hard to pick one as best but this hunt was very memorable....I hunt corn and soybean fields primarily along wooded creeks. I had been scouting this property all season , its late season now and I am out to fill my last tag.  I had usually seen about a dozen turkeys feeding in this cornstalk field and knew they roosted in a thin strip of cottonwoods west of the ground I hunt about 150 yards.  This ground is 160 acres, native grass pasture on the higher east side, sloping down to narrow cornfield on the west border with a five wire barb wire fence on west border....then past that about 60 yard wide soybean field (neighbors) then pasture where the roost was.
Problem was no cover on my cornstalk field so I knew I would have to use a ground blind. I woke up about 3:30 am thinking about how to make a movement decoy to help me seal the deal...I took my hen decoy and attached fishing line to her breast and the other end an old Zebco 2o2 reel from one of the grandkids poles. Packed up my ground blind, decoy bag (Jake and hen), my BPS 10 gauge, folding blind stool and headed out very early so I could get setup without spooking the roosted  birds.  Made it to my spot about 5:00 am and got the blind up, put it 35 yards east of the boundary fence.  Set the decoys up about 20 yds west of the blind with an 8" eye bolt just under hens breast I ran the fishing line thru...then the Zebco back in the blind with me. About an hour later I  am rewarded with thunderous gobbles to my west
and as it gets lighter I tug on the Zebco reel to try my movement hen...she works great....head goes down toward ground in a feeding motion.  Fast forward the birds fly down.....four toms and seven hens straight west of me about 120 yards west in neighbors soybean field....then one tom and one hen fly down north of the  other birds about 6o yards.
So they have plenty of hens and I decide to be very patient...every 15 to 20 minutes I tug on the Zebco to move the hen decoy and softly yelp.  I'm having a great time watching the five toms strut for the hens....I can see in my binocs the single tom is a huge bird sporting a rope beard.  Then it happens....the big toms hen leaves him and heads towards the four younger toms who are lined up in a row strutting and gobbling.  She joins the other hens and in a panic the big tom follows her, as he nears the four toms they rush him and drive him back north by himself.  NOW is my chance he's alone. I start calling more aggressively  with some cutting all while moving my hen once in a while....it's  too much for the old Tom and he starts moving directly towards my decoys, closing the ground fast. I move the BPS into position and wait for him to cross through the  barb wire fence...he ducks under the bottom wire and just as he starts to get upright on my side I drop the hammer.  Upon retrieving  him I was excited to see a huge beard....14 1/2" and he was a load...later weighed in over 26 lbs.  I took a few photos in front of my blind and started loading up for the long walk uphill back to my truck. With a 26 lb bird, 17 lb ground blind, 9 lb gun, decoys, chair etc. I have quite a load and its hot and humid...I'm 6'0, over 250 lbs , not in best of shape so I am soaked in sweat and stopping to rest every 5o yards...but I can't wipe the huge grin off my face. Great morning.